Ukrainian children who have fled to Hungary from the war need material aid and social support to start the upcoming school year, the UN’s children’s fund UNICEF said in a statement on Monday, coinciding with the opening of an exhibition of photomontages in City Hall park in Budapest.
UNICEF aiding refugee Ukrainian children
Thousands of children who cannot attend school in their home country will soon start the school year in Hungary, the statement said.
Two years into the war, around half of Ukrainian children have either fled the country or are internally displaced, the UN’s children’s fund said. Hungary currently hosts more than 60,000 Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, it said.
Hungarian Reformed Church Aid, a charity, has been working in partnership with UNICEF to smooth access to education, health care, child protection services and psychological healing for Ukrainian refugees, the statement said.
The exhibition, entitled Flowers and Tanks – Artwork in the Shadow of the War in Ukraine, featuring photomontages of war-torn Ukraine and drawings by child refugees, runs through to Aug 21.
An unexploded Soviet bomb weighing 100 kilos has been found during construction work in a local street in Nagytarcsa, east of Budapest, the Hungarian Armed Forces said on Monday.
Soviet bomb found
The device was disassembled by an explosives expert at the scene and taken to a central army depo, the army said on Facebook.
Earlier this month, a similar WWII bomb was found in the Danube river in Esztergom, in northern Hungary. The device was disassembled at the scene and taken to the central depo.
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Monday said there was growing concern worldwide about developments in the Middle East.
In a post on Facebook, the minister noted that he had spoken by phone with Israeli and Iranian foreign ministers Israel Katz and Ali Bagheri Kani, respectively, and the discussions “are proving anew that we’re in the 24th hour”.
If conflict spread to another country, he said, it “could easily turn into a regional war, presenting a threat to global security”. The international community must “concentrate all its strength on preventing escalation”, he added.
Hungary’s position is clear, he said: “Israel must not be left to suffer another terrorist attack such as that of last October; at the same time, everything must be done to prevent the outbreak of a major regional war.”
As we wrote a few days earlier, Flights suspended at Budapest Airport due to the escalating conflict in the Middle East, details HERE.
As we wrote earlier, PM Orbán remained alone again in EU with rejecting statement about Israel, details HERE.
Europe will be left alone to handle the war in Ukraine if it does not ditch its pro-war stance, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in his address at the Balvanyos Summer University in Baile Tusnad, Romania, on Saturday, adding that the “pro-peace position” was “fermenting”.
Photo: Facebook/Orbán Viktor
The prime minister said changes in the global system were under way and Asia would be at its centre, so a “Hungarian grand strategy” was both needed and in the pipeline.
Noting his recent meeting with Romanian counterpart Marcel Ciolacu in Bucharest, Orban said: “We are making progress.” Romania is Hungary’s third most important economic partner, with economic and trade relations breaking new records, he added.
He said Hungary’s EU presidency will put the issue of Romania’s accession to Schengen on the agenda in October.
The two leaders also discussed the Bucharest-Budapest high-speed rail link, Orban noted.
The prime minister said that this year the Romanians had not tried to dictate what could be discussed at Tusvanyos. He added that many people in Brussels, however, had condemned Hungary’s peace mission, even though the bloc’s founding treaty stated that “the Union’s aim is to promote peace”.
Orban said: “Time is on the side of the politics of peace.”
Referring to the upcoming US presidential election, he declared: “Trump ante portas.” If Europe did not shift to a “peace policy” by the time of the November election, it would have to do so after Trump’s victory, “admitting defeat” and bearing the political consequences alone, he said.
He said Brussels “doesn’t like it when we call what they do a pro-war policy, because they think they’re supporting the war in the interest of peace.”
He added that since the start of the Hungarian “peace mission”, the US secretary of state had spoken with Russia’s foreign minister, and the Swiss foreign minister had also held talks with him.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he noted, had called Donald Trump, the former US president and Republican presidential candidate, and the Ukrainian foreign minister had visited Beijing.
“Albeit slowly, we’re moving away from a European pro-war policy in the direction of a pro-peace policy,” Orban said. “In other words, the fermentation has begun.”
If it were up to Ukraine and Russia, there would never be peace, so peace can only come from the outside, Orban said.
Both sides, he added, were taking “brutal” losses, “yet neither wants to reach a settlement”, Orban said, explaining that this was because both Ukraine and Russia believed that they could win and were fuelled by their own “perceived or real truth”.
Orban said the Ukrainians saw the war as a Russian invasion that violated international law and their territorial sovereignty, and that they were defending themselves and fighting a war of independence.
The Russians, on the other hand, believed that there had been “serious NATO military developments in Ukraine”, that the country had been promised NATO membership, and they did not want to see either NATO troops or the alliance’s weapons on the Russia-Ukraine border, he said. Russia therefore believed it had a right to self-defence and that the war had been provoked.
“So everyone has some kind of perceived or real truth, and neither side will give up the war,” the prime minister said.
“This is a straight path to escalation,” he said, stressing that there would be no peace if it were left up to the two warring sides. “Peace can only come from the outside,” Orban said.
Ruthless war provided a vantage point on “true reality”, he said. The true reality, he declared, cast a cold light on “ideologies, statistical manipulations, media distortions and tactical eavesdropping by politicians losing their power, their delusions and conspiracy theories”, which no longer had relevance. “What remains is the dust of brutal reality.”
He said that while in recent years the US had declared China to be its main challenger and opponent, “we’re still seeing that it’s fighting a proxy war against Russia and constantly accusing China of covertly supporting Russia.”
“If that’s true, then it begs the question as to why it’s rational to put two such large countries in the same enemy camp,” he said.
Orban also emphasised Ukraine’s defiance of expectations in terms of its reslilence, which he attributed to Ukraine getting “a flash of the perspective of belonging to the West” instead of being a buffer state.
Meanwhile, the prime minister said Russia “isn’t the firm neo-Stalinist autacracy the Brussels leaders trying to bring it to its knees with sanctions are trying to make it out to be, either”. Rather, he said, it was a country that was showing technical and economic, “and eventually, perhaps, social” flexibility.
Orban said European politics “has collapsed”, arguing that Europe had relinquished the protection of its own interests.
“Europe is currently following the politics of the US Democratic Party unconditionally, even at the cost of self-destruction,” he said, adding that sanctions imposed on Russia were hurting European interests, raising energy prices and making the European economy uncompetitive.
Orban said the European system of powers had so far been based on a “Paris-Berlin axis”, but this no longer existed, or had at least “become irrelevant and evadable” compared with the “new power centre” comprising London, Warsaw, Kyiv and the Baltic and Scandinavian states.
He said the idea of replacing the Paris-Berlin axis was not a new one but rather “an old Polish plan” that involved Poland becoming the continent’s main American base. This, he added, required “calling the Americans in there, between the Germans and the Russians”. But this, he added, could only be made a reality owing to the current war.
“This is an old plan: weaken Russia and surpass Germany,” Orban said, insisting that Poland was pursuing the “most deceitful politics” in Europe, arguing that “they’re obliviously doing business with the Russians while morally lecturing us for doing the same thing”.
He said Poland had abandoned the Visegrad cooperation in order to pursue this strategy as the V4, besides accepting the Paris-Berlin axis, acknowledged that “Germany is strong, Russia is strong, and between the two, in cooperation with the central European states, we form a third component”.
Orban also noted that Poland’s army is the second largest in Europe after France, with the country spending 5 percent of its GDP on defence.
The prime minister said Hungary’s “peace mission”, besides aiming for peace, was also about urging Europe to “finally pursue a policy of its own”.
Orban said the West had drifted into “intellectual loneliness”, arguing that until now it had seen itself as a point of reference, or a global standard, because it had been the one to contribute the values such as liberal democracy and the green transition, which the world had to accept.
“But this situation has taken a 180-degree turn over the last two years” Orban said, arguing that although the West had once again told the world to take a more determined stance against Russia, the reality was that “slowly everyone is supporting Russia”.
He said it was unsurprising that countries like North Korea and China were backing Russia, but Iran, India and even NATO-member Turkiye had joined them, and the Muslim world also saw Russia as a partner.
Orban said the biggest problem in the world was “the weakness and disintegration of the West”, as well as the Western media narrative that Russia was the biggest danger for the world.
“This is a mistake,” he said, arguing that Russia’s leadership was “hyper-rational, comprehendible and predictable”, unlike the West’s “irrational and unpredictable” actions.
He said Hungary’s task was to try to understand the West again. Central Europe’s worldview lay in the idea of nation states, while the West “believes that they no longer exist”, he added.
Also, the West, he said, thought differently about issues such as migration. While hundreds of thousands of Christians were killing each other in Europe’s east, hundreds of thousands of people from “foreign civilisations” were being allowed into the western parts of the continent.
He said the EU “not only thinks this way, but also declares it”, and their objective was to “transcend nations” and transpose their sovereignty to Brussels.
A similar battle was taking place in the United States, he said, so the stakes in the US presidential election “are enormous”.
Orban said Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, wanted to bring the American people back from the “post-national liberal condition” to the “national condition”.
Opposition to this endeavour was behind moves to thwart Trump’s candidacy, he said.
“This is why they want to put him in prison, why they’re stripping him of his wealth, and if that doesn’t work, this is why they wanted to kill him,” Orban said.
Orban said the “dramatic, democracy-shaking” political consequence of the post-national condition was the political problem of elitism and populism.
He said the elites “condemn the people for drifting towards the right” and labelled the people’s feelings and thoughts “xenophobic, homophobic and nationalistic”. Meanwhile, “the people”, he said, suspected the elite of “sinking into some mindless globalism” instead of caring about what mattered to them.
He said this raised the problem of representative democracy: the elite, “even quite proudly”, did not want to represent the people, leaving the people effectively disenfranchised.
Orban said the elites “only find the values held by degree-holders acceptable”. This, he added, resulted in Brussels remaining “occupied by a liberal oligarchy”. “This left-liberal elite is actually organising the Transatlantic elite, which isn’t European but global, isn’t made up of nation-states but is federal, and isn’t democratic but political,” the prime minister said.
In the next decades Asia will be at the centre of the global system, Orban said.
“Europe can then decide whether it wants to be an open-air museum or a part of global competition,” he said, adding that changes were now afoot that had not been seen in the past 500 years.
Leading powers had come from the West over the past 150 years while change was now coming from Asia, he declared, citing Asia’s “demographic, technological and capital” advantage in more and more areas.
Orban referred to Asia’s military power and financial prowess, saying “the world’s biggest companies will be Asian” and the best universities and research institutes and largest stock exchanges would be based there.
Orban said former US president Donald Trump was seeking an American response to this state of affairs, and this represented America’s “last chance” to remain as a world leader.
The prime minister said that Europe had two options: to become an open-air museum in a “subordinated role to the US” or to follow French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to achieve strategic autonomy and “enter the competition for changing the global system”.
Orban insisted that it was feasible to recover Europe’s ability to attract capital and implement big infrastructure developments, “especially in central Europe”.
“We need a European military alliance with strong European military industry,” he said, adding that Europe must also be self-sufficient in terms of energy, for which nuclear power was indispensable. All this, he added, must be concluded after a post-war agreement with Russia is forged.
Orban said changes in the current global system presented more of an opportunity than a danger, “and our room for manoeuver is broader than at any time in the last 500 years”.
Orban said that 500 years ago Europe had been a winner, while Hungary had been a loser of the previous global paradigm shift, arguing that whereas a new economic space had opened up for the western part of the continent, the Muslim conquests had turned Hungary into a war zone for a long period, which afterwards had been forced to integrate into a German-Habsburg world.
He said developments in the United States “are going favourably for us”, adding, however, that he did not believe that the US could give Hungary “a better economic-political offer” than European Union membership could. “But if they can, we must take it into consideration,” he said.
Orban said China had given Hungary “the maximum it can offer” and considered Hungary’s EU membership an asset, “unlike the Americans, who always imply that we should leave [the EU].” China’s offer, he said, was that “we should participate in each other’s modernisation”, even if the differences in size should be kept in mind.
The prime minister said the western part of the EU “won’t ever return to the nation-state form”, adding that the bloc’s eastern half could protect nation states.
He said the EU had “lost the ongoing war” and would be abandoned by the US, adding that Brussels would not be able to finance the war in Ukraine or the country’s operations. This, he said, meant that “the European Union will have to pay the price of the war escapade, which will be high and will affect us unfavourably.”
Orban said it followed from this that the EU accepted that “central European countries will remain in the European Union” and they would remain nation states “pursuing their own foreign policy”.
“They don’t like it, but they’ll have to put up with it,” he said, adding that the number of such countries would only increase.
Given fundamental changes in the global system, a “Hungarian grand strategy” is needed, Orban said.
Policies for the period between 2010 and 2030 “will be carried out and completed”, he said. “But given [epochal] changes in the global system, these won’t be enough,” he said, explaining that connectivity was key to Hungary’s “grand strategy”.
He said Hungary must not find itself locked into either of the emerging Western or Eastern economies. “We must be present in both,” he said.
“We won’t enter into a war against the East or into technical and commercial blockades,” he added.
Also, the strategy encompassed sovereignty rooted in economic foundations, he said, adding that this meant fostering domestic national champions, competitive medium-sized firms, companies producing for the domestic market, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Orban said several Hungarian national champions were competitive abroad in the banking sector, the energy sector, the food industry, the production of agricultural raw materials, IT, telecommunications, the media, the construction industry, real estate development, the pharmaceutical industry, military industry, logistics, and also “somewhat” in the knowledge industry via universities.
He said the medium-sized enterprise sector was also competitive, and the Hungarian government will launch a large programme for SMEs in the 2025 “peace budget”.
Orban said bolstering Hungary’s financial independence, reducing the debt stock to 30 percent, and turning the country into a regional creditor were key goals.
This meant retaining the country’s production capacities rather than turning into a service-centred economy, Orban said. “We mustn’t make the same mistake as the West of outsourcing manufacturing jobs to guest workers … as this would lead to a barely stoppable social breakdown,” he said.
He emphasised the importance of Hungarian society’s “solid and flexible social structure”, and halting demographic decline.
“We got off to a good start, but now we’re stuck,” he said. New momentum was needed, he said, and by 2035 “Hungary has to be demographically self-sustaining so that any idea of the population being replaced by migrants would be out of the question”.
He said it was likely that tax discounts for children in 2025 would have to be doubled in a single year so as to regain demographic momentum.
Orban highlighted the importance of creating wealth and the financial independence of the middle class and preserving full employment, “and the key to this is maintaining the current relationship between work and Gypsies”.
“Work is available, but to live you need to work,” he said.
Orban said the Hungarian grand strategy would take another six months to ripen and evolve.
The strategy “must be based on national foundations” and should include all Hungarians around the world, Orban said.
Support systems which underpin the stability and flexibility of Hungarian society, such as family support, must be spread out to all areas inhabited by Hungarians beyond the borders within the foreseeable future.
He said Hungarian villages must be maintained. “The village is not a symbol of backwardness; city-level services must also be provided in villages, and cities must bear the financial burden of this,” he said.
On the topic of protecting sovereignty, Orban said it was important to protect national diversity, and as well as preserving the language it was vital to preserve religion, too, as without Christianity there would be no moral compass or guidance.
Politics, he said, must be adapted to “our national character”. Freedom, he added, must be built internally. The personal freedom of Hungarians must be built as well as the freedom of the nation, he said. Order, he added, was not an intrinsic value but a condition for freedom.
“Our opponents will say that instead of an independent national grand strategy, integration is needed. So they’ll attack constantly… They’ll question not only the grand strategy’s content but its necessity, too. This fight must be taken up.”
Orban said the strategy’s success also depended on people in their twenties and thirties. “[We] must find brave, young fighters with the sentiment of the nation,” he said.
Answering a question about “the insanity of Europe”, Orban said Western Europeans had a totally different interpretation of the world, and this “appears to us as deranged or irrational” whereas it wasn’t. “[T]hey will be our partners in this deranged state, in the European Union,” he said.
The prime minister said he enjoyed European Council meetings in a way, explaining that as a central European leader, he had to keep in mind his and their “matrices”, and the complex system of relationships between the two had to be translated constantly.
“This is the most beautiful part of politics in an intellectual sense,” he said.
Ukraine is “brutally attacking Hungary for its pro-peace stance”, Fidesz communications director Tamás Menczer on Tuesday, referring to a decision to shut down a pipeline carrying Russian crude to Hungary.
Ukraine punishes Hungary?
“They’re trying and destroy those who support peace, using every possible means… It is dishonest, unacceptable and illegitimate,” the ruling party’s spokesman said in a video posted on Facebook.
Menczer cited a Ukrainian MP as saying that Hungary’s resistance towards arms shipments to Ukraine “must be broken”.
“We are being punished for being pro-peace; this time our energy security is under attack. It is quite possible that it was not Ukraine’s idea alone; they may have been assisted by pro-war Brussels circles or even US Democrats,” he said.
“Everyone should be prepared: Hungary won’t let it go,” he warned.
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó expects “a political volley fire” at a meeting of his European Union counterparts in Brussels on Monday.
Ahead of the meeting, Szijjártó said on Facebook that “the foreign affairs bureaucracy in Brussels and the leaders of some EU countries have been sharpening their tongues on our peace mission out of their frustration and jealousy and because their ill-advised strategy has been revealed” over Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s meeting the presidents of Russia and China, as well as former US President Donald Trump.
Szijjártó noted that since those talks were held the Swiss foreign minister had met his Russian counterpart, the US and Russian defence ministers had also held talks, while Trump had also spoken with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader.
“Up with the armor and get ready for a (political) volley fire …off we go to Brussels, where my foreign minister colleagues are waiting, [in the] EU Foreign Affairs Council,”
he said.
As we wrote two days before, Sky-high fuel prices and power outages may come in Hungary after Ukraine ban on Russian oil import, details HERE.
The government has decided to prepare and anti-war action plan, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Monday.
Gergely Gulyás told a regular government press briefing that measures would be introduced against “pro-war propaganda”. Parties and media outlets will be obliged “to make their resources transparent,” he said. As Hungarian law forbids political parties from accepting financing from abroad the measure will apply only to media outlets, Gulyás said, adding that those outlets would be required “to make their funding resources public”.
“Hungary reserves the right to send funding arriving from abroad for war propaganda purposes back to the sender,” he said.
He said the task of drafting the regulatory framework had been assigned to the justice minister. “The EU has a regulation in place but the government seeks to have a bit more rule-of-law-like solution,” he added.
Regarding the EU regulations, Gulyás said such “a rough, radical regulation violating the freedom of opinion and speech” could not be introduced in Hungary within its constitutional framework.
Under the government’s decision, banks, multinational companies and energy companies that have been generating wartime extra profits will have to pay a “defence contribution” to the National Defence Fund, said Gulyás. He said in 2024 there would be “no substantial change” in the scale of the bank levy for lenders whose holdings of government securities had not increased, adding that “many banks had exploited a loophole on government security purchases.” He added that the transaction duty payable by banks would be raised, and a duty would be levied on forex transactions.
A freeze of retail bank account fees and bank card fees will be introduced this year to prevent lenders from passing on the defence contribution to families, he said, adding that the windfall profit tax payable by multinational companies and the energy sector, and the retail tax would not be lowered in 2024.
On another topic, Gulyás called it “the right move” by Prime Minister Viktor Orban from the point of view of Europe, and Hungary, to embark on a peace mission at the start of Hungary’s rotating EU presidency this month. “Peace cannot be achieved without a direct dialogue with the warring sides.” “Big countries in Europe are now dominated by war-propaganda, but somebody must speak for the victims and families torn apart as well,” Gulyás said.
He said achieving peace required primarily the inclusion of leading powers which was why after his talks with the leaders of the warring sides the prime minister had travelled to Beijing to hold consultations with the Chinese president. “Hungary wants to be in touch with every country that could contribute to achieving peace, and wants to talk to every political leader who could take steps to end the war as soon as possible and for achieving a ceasefire and start peace talks,” said Gulyas.
“Hungary knows where its place is as the current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, it does not have a concrete peace plan, because it can only be worked out together with the [warring] sides,” he said.
Gulyás said Hungary’s peace mission was seen by many “with suspicion” or was opposed, adding that the country was facing “political, legal and financial blackmail to join the pro-war camp”. “It is hard not to regard the European Court’s recent ruling in connection with migration [against Hungary] as such blackmail,” he added, insisting however that Hungary would not change its position that “every political step must serve the goal of ending the war”.
The government is calling on energy companies to continue to adhere to an agreement reached with the government, under which fuel prices should be kept under the average price in neighbouring countries, Gulyás said.
Fuel prices “have been driven down” compared with those in April and May, he said. Fuel is down by 32 forints and diesel by 30 forints compared with the April peak, he said. At the same time, the price of petrol was 4 forints higher last week than the average in neighbouring countries, according to data from the Central Statistical Office, while diesel was 10 forints dearer, he said.
The government is expecting fuel retailers to take steps to remedy the “unfair situation”, Gulyás said.
Responding to questions about Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visits to Ukraine, Russia and China, Gulyás said the trips “were made public [at the location of the meeting]”, a practice that “would be worth continuing”, Gulyás said. Immediately after the talks, Orbán “briefed EU officials accurately and thoroughly on the trip, as well as on his views on how the EU could promote peace talks,” Gulyás said.
Whereas Orban travelled to Moscow in his capacity as the Hungarian prime minister and the holder of the rotating presidency of the council of the EU, “he did not conduct talks in the name of the EU”, he said. Reviewing ties of the bloc and a third country during the visit of a member state leader was common practice, he added.
Gulyás said Orban had told Xi during his Beijing visit that the timing of peace depended on the “big players in world politics”, and this would be greatly aided by China “joining the cause”. Should the United States also join, “we’ll have peace very soon indeed,” he added.
Regarding Orban’s upcoming visit to Washington, DC, Gulyás said: “During a peace mission, meetings with people who can promote and help peace are advisable.” Asked whether Orban was scheduled to meet former US president Donald Trump, Gulyás said: “Trump is more of a member of that circle than the current administration.”
Meanwhile, Gulyás called the first week of the Hungarian EU presidency “successful”, adding that Orban would “continue his peace mission”.
“Attacks in Brussels on the peace mission” may ease up, he said, adding that this would largely depend on the outcome of the US election. “Should the current situation remain and the Republicans prevail, many European leaders will declare themselves pro-peace,” he added.
Commenting on Robert Fico, Gulyás praised the Slovak prime minister’s “courage”, and he quoted Fico as saying that had his health allowed, he would have joined Orban on his visit to Moscow.
Regarding Orban’s talks in Kyiv, Gulyás said “promises” were made on improving the situation of Transcarpathia Hungarians “from a higher level than before”. If the rights they have secured by 2005 may be guaranteed, that would greatly improve ties between the two countries, he said. Should that not happen, that would hinder Ukraine’s EU accession “and even the accession negotiations after a certain point”.
Regarding the new EP party family, Patriots for Europe, Gulyás said there was a “good chance” that the French National Rally (RN) and the Italian Lega parties would join the group, “a community of parties with similar stances on sovereignty” with more than 10 founding members and the potential to become the third largest force in the EP. Alternativ fur Deutschland (ADF) would not be joining the group, he added.
While Patriots for Europe “will not change majority relations within the EP”, he said it would nonetheless create a forum that provided visibility for “European forces that remain truly conservative, stand against the war and want peace, but also reject all right-wing extremism while also being aware that Europe is currently threatened by liberal and left-wing extremism.”
Patriots for Europe, he added, would start out with 80-90 MEPs, and the founding meeting will be held on later on Monday.
Commenting on the outcome of the general election in France, Gulyás said the will of French voters must be respected, and “the winner must be congratulated, even if there is no clear winner”. The result “is a three-party government where a governing majority will not be easy to bring about”, he added.
Asked about the so-called defence contribution, he said revenues from the measure were expected to be close to 400 billion forints (EUR 1bn). The relevant regulations will be published this week, to come into force from Aug 1, he said.
On the matter of changes to bank transaction fees, Gulyás said the fee would be increased from 0.3 percent to 0,45 percent, with the ceiling raised from 10,000 forints to 20,000 forints. Fees on cash withdrawals will be raised to 0.95 percent from 0,6 percent, but withdrawals up to 150,000 forints will remain free, he added. Conversions would carry a 0.45 percent fee with a 20,000 forint ceiling, he said.
The national economy ministry and others have coordinated with all involved parties, and “the decision did not come as a surprise”, he said.
Utility price caps will not be phased out, Gulyás said in response to a question on the possible effects of extra taxes on the energy sector being channelled into the defence fund.
The justice minister will draft the regulations on “parties and media engaging in war propaganda” by September, Gulyás said.
Concerning fuel prices, Gulyás said the national economy ministry was in talks with distributors on pushing them down. He added that regulatory tools were available but “the government will only use them as a last resort”.
Market restrictions could be used “very cautiously” in the case of products that affect the everyday life of families, he said.
Commenting on a recent ruling by the Kuria, Hungary’s supreme court, to recount all votes cast in the Budapest mayoral election, Gulyás said: “Everything is in place to do that in transparently to retain and reinforce public trust.”
With over 800,000 votes cast, and with a difference of just 41 votes between the two candidates, “it’s likely there’d be a recount anywhere in the democratic world…” A lesson from the recent election, he added, was that there should be a uniform protocol for erasing from the voting sheets candidates who withdraw. Also, the difference in the number of votes between two candidates automatically requiring a recount should be defined, he said.
Asked about a “clubbing scandal” involving Peter Magyar of the opposition Respect and Freedom (TISZA) party, Gulyás said Magyar’s behaviour been “unworthy of a public figure”. Put to him that Magyar had been “hiding behind his MEP’s immunity”, Gulyás said that had Magyar committed a crime “he could not waive his immunity; it is the European Parliament that would lift it”. He also noted that Magyar had “pledged in the election campaign not to take up his mandate and go to Brussels if he won.”
“He is going to Brussels to become an MEP… We cannot exclude that his main motivation is to obtain immunity.”
Answering a question about whether Hungary was considering quitting the International Criminal Court, Gulyás said Hungary should have “followed the wisdom of the US” and not joined the court in the first place. “[But] there’s little point in quitting; Hungary has never ratified the treaty so it has no legal effect,” he said. “The international community does not need a court that makes its decisions based on political considerations,” he added.
Concerning a new coronavirus variant Gulyás said it was not comparable to the original strain and was causing much milder symptoms, therefore special measures were not justified.
Asked about Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Hungary, who was fast-tracked Hungarian citizenship had was now charged with sexual assault, Gulyás said citizenship was granted to people “subjected to the strictest national security screening” but the Hungarian state “has not disclosed and will not disclose information on its citizenship registry.”
Gulyás: Peace cannot be achieved without direct dialogue with warring parties
Gergely Gulyás has highlighted the prime minister’s “launching a peace mission” at the start of the Hungarian European Union presidency, and called Viktor Orbán’s move “correct both from an European and a Hungarian point of view”.
“Peace cannot be achieved without direct dialogue with the warring parties,” Gulyás told a regular press conference on Monday.
Europe’s largest countries “are dominated by war propaganda … but somebody must represent the losers, the victims, the mutilated families,” he insisted. Peace, Gulyás said, could primarily be promoted by large powers, adding that Orban had travelled to China after meeting the belligerents to have talks with China’s leader. “Hungary wants to communicate with all countries that could contribute to peace; it wants to talk to all political leaders that could do something for an early end to the killing and the war and for a ceasefire and peace talks,” he said.
“Hungary is aware of its position, and as rotating president of the European Union it does not have an actual peace plan, which could only be elaborated involving the (warring) parties,” he said.
“Many view the Hungarian peace mission with suspicion; Hungary is subject to political, legal, and financial blackmail in order to make it support the war camp,” Gulyás insisted.
Peace will not happen by itself, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio in an interview on Friday. “Peace will come when someone makes it,” he said in connection with the war in Ukraine.
Orbánsaid that Hungary, as the holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, did not have the mandate to negotiate on behalf of the European Union. “This never occurred to me,” he said.
He said his task was to demonstrate how the situation has unfolded in respect of how far each party can go, and once this is revealed the leaders of the 27 EU member states can come to a decision. Henceforth, those authorised to negotiate “will do so”.
“But this is still very far off,” the prime minister said. “We can only take the first steps on the road to peace.”
Orbán said that Europe should hold the compass of peace and humanity, humane thinking, and pursue a humane foreign policy, and it was likely that it could do more to move towards peace.
Commenting on his recent meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the prime minister said that Hungary knew its place and “the big countries” would handle the big peace negotiations, but in a vacuum of dialogue it was “very hard to imagine how to move in the direction of peace without it”.
Orbán said his job was to make the facts clear by going to the places where there was a threat of war that may have an impact on Europe and Hungary.
The prime minister said he had asked Zelensky several questions to gauge where his red lines were and how far he could go for the sake of peace.
He said Hungary could be useful for those who strove for peace. “The positions are far apart, but Hungary can get the parties off to a start along the long road ahead, with a ceasefire and peace negotiations at the end.”
Zelensky, he said, was unhappy about the idea of peace talks or a ceasefire as “the other side” may take advantage of the latter by redeploying forces.
But it would be possible to overcome such a standoff “with some perspective and knowing that peace negotiations are only a few weeks or months off,” he added.
The prime minister said there were “all sorts of surveys” after Europe had decided to “get involved in the war on Ukraine’s side”. Discussions and surveys about the war, he added, were also part of the war, meaning that they were “manipulated” or “hard to believe”.
Orbán mentioned his recent visits to Berlin, Rome and Paris in preparation for Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union, along with his visit to Kyiv this week, where he said he had spoken to not just politicians and decision-makers but also “the average people”.
During his trips, he said he saw a kind of “moral pressure” for Europe to do more to “ease the tension of war” when conflict broke out in its neighbourhood that should not have.
There was also a feeling, he added, expectations were too weighted towards waiting for America to act instead of taking more pro-active steps today.
Also, people were worried about the impact of the war on Europe’s economy, he said, citing cost-of-living worries in Western Europe and “war inflation everywhere”.
Meanwhile, the prime minister said that France’s parliamentary election would not only influence the number of groups or representatives in the European Parliament but the future of the whole of Europe.
Orbán said it was unprecedented in France for a right-wing party to make a breakthrough in a domestic election. The right, he added, had been cordoned off and excluded from French politics in recent decades, deemed unfit for cooperation by other parties.
But they had broken through this cordon, Orbán said, “and if I’m right, not by a small but by a big margin — if we’re interpreting the first round correctly.”
Such a momentous development in France would precipitate change “that will immediately affect the entire continent”, he said, adding that this would also influence ties between Hungary and France.
In one possible scenario, the right wing in France may win to an extent that it can form a government, but a confused situation may also emerge if its victory did not turn out to be decisive, and this could also affect European politics, he said.
Marine Le Pen’s party, he added, was “the biggest national group in the European Parliament … so it isn’t a matter of indifference how they decide their fate.”
Regarding the Patriots for Europe group, Orbán said a founding meeting will take place on Monday. Parties will gather that have already decided to join but have not yet announced their intention to do so, he added.
Orbán reiterated that the force could possibly end up being the second largest grouping in the EP.
Meanwhile, Orbán slammed the recent series of flight delays and cancellations a “unacceptable”, saying it was “impossible not to be outraged” by what was happening in the sector.
“It’s not about whether or not air travel is well-organised, but that there’s not even the bare minimum of humanity,” Orbán said. He added that most passengers had been working throughout the entire year to be able to use their savings to go on holiday, and this was “one of the important events of the year” for most Hungarian families.
Orbán said passengers were not being shown “any humanity” by airlines when they were not kept informed about the situation and the long delays.
He said what was happening at Liszt Ferenc International Airport was a consequence of the period before the state had re-acquired it, adding that he trusted that the situation would improve “when the actual physical takeover happens”. He said it was not just the airport’s operator that needed to do a better job, but also air traffic control and the ground crew.
Orbán said the government expected staff and crew that interacted with Hungarians and tourists to show “more understanding and humanity”, adding that he had instructed his ministers to enforce those expectations.
On the topic of vehicle fuel prices, the prime minister said the government would not tolerate Hungarians having to pay more for fuel than the average price in neighbouring countries. Hungary’s vehicle fuel companies must honour the agreement they signed with the government, he said.
“We can’t have prices keeping to the regional average for a while only to then slip out of that range,” Orbán said, adding that “this is what’s happening now”.
He said that for now, the government was asking fuel companies “verbally” to keep to the agreement. “But we won’t say it twice. We have an agreement and it must be honoured. We tolerate Hungarians being made to pay more for fuel than what is the average price in neighbouring countries. And if this polite message doesn’t work, we’ll take steps.”
On another subject, Orbán criticised the EU’s tariffs on China’s biggest electric vehicle manufacturers as “bad and ill-thought-out”, warning that the measure could trigger a trade war.
Orbán said the “biggest aim and the strongest hope” was that the tariffs would only be temporary and would be lifted after four months.
He said the European Commission had justified the introduction of the tariffs with the need to protect the interests of European manufacturers, adding, at the same time, that the leaders of the major carmakers he had spoken to ahead of the start of Hungary’s EU presidency had strongly opposed the measure.
“These kinds of bad and ill-though-out decisions can push economic life towards a trade war”, the prime minister warned, saying this “decision by the bureaucrats” could trigger counter-measures from the East.
Hungary’s interests, he said, lay in averting a trade war, because “we make our living by being able to sell what we produce in Hungary all over the world”. “But if there’s going to be a trade war then we won’t be able to sell the products produced in Hungary, and this could eventually threaten jobs,” he added.
Turning to the economy, Orbán said there were encouraging signs which should neither be overestimated nor underestimated. He underlined the importance of the tourism sector, noting that the money spent by tourists in Hungary made its way into the Hungarian economy.
He said the government was trying to reach an agreement with Hungarian employers that would result in good wages, as this was “the most important tool in the fight against inflation”.
“We’re burning the candle at both ends … in the interest of easing the cost of living,” he said, adding that 60 percent of bookings in the tourism sector were from domestic and 40 percent form foreign travellers, which indicated that “there’s something Hungarians can afford here at home”.
Orbán said that in addition to the government’s housing programmes that have helped 250,000 families the home renovation subsidy scheme would help 20,000-30,000 families.
He said employment data and the state of the construction sector — where a bigger slowdown had been expected — were both encouraging, but it would not be until the US presidential election in the autumn and when the outcome of the war became clearer that it would be known whether a general improvement in the situation could be expected.
“We have a lot of work to do before then,” Orbán said.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has arrived in Moscow as part of his “peace mission”, the prime minister’s press chief said.
Viktor Orbán in Moscow
Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia on 5 July 2024. Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
Orbánis scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit, Bertalan Havasi told MTI.
Shortly after his arrival, Viktor Orbán posted the visit on his official Facebook page, with the following caption:
“Moscow after Kyiv. The second stage of the peace mission.”
According to Telex, shortly after 9 AM on Friday morning, the Airbus A-319 government plane that usually carries Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took off from Budapest. The PM travelled to the Russian capital a few days after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
Orbán does not represent the EU in Moscow
Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia on 5 July 2024. Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy issued a separate statement on Friday morning saying that Viktor Orbán will visit Moscow only in the framework of bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia, and will not represent the EU in any way in Moscow, Telex writes.
As we wroteon Thursday, the President of the European Council Charles Michel said on X (formerly Twitter) that the EU’s rotating presidency “has no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU.” He added that the European Council’s standpoint concerning the issue was clear: “Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. No discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine.”
Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, took to the social media site to write: “The rumours about your visit to Moscow cannot be true @PM_ViktorOrban, or can they?”
PM Viktor Orbán in Moscow, Russia on 5 July 2024. Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
FM Szijjártó is also in Russia
According to HVG, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó also travelled to the Russian capital. The news site reported that a few minutes after 7 AM, the Dassault Falcon 7x aircraft, registration 606 of the Hungarian Defence Forces, usually used by the Foreign Minister, took off from Budapest Airport. The radar image shows that the luxury jet took off for Slovakia and then flew via Belarus to Russia, landing in Moscow shortly after 9 AM. Szijjártó posted on Facebook after arriving in the Russian capital:
Sunday’s local and European parliamentary elections have strengthened the government and given it a strong mandate to continue “spreading the message of peace” in international relations, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office told a regular press briefing on Thursday.
Without a boost to its pro-peace stance, the government “would have been unable to keep Hungary out of NATO’s military mission in Ukraine,” Gergely Gulyás said.
The “fair” agreement between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier this week, which maintained Hungarian interests, was partly thanks to the election results, Gulyás said.
“Hungarian money, weapons or soldiers will not participate in the NATO mission in Ukraine,” Gulyás said, adding that the government saw the mission as extremely dangerous that could end in the war spreading to larger areas, “in Hungary’s immediate neighbourhood”.
Hungary continues to provide asylum to those fleeing the war, he added.
Speaking about the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union to fine Hungary 200 million euros for not complying with EU legislations on asylum and on returning illegal immigrants to their home countries, Gulyás called the ruling “outrageous, unfair and unacceptable”.
The minister said the ruling contradicted EU law, was incompatible with Hungary’s constitution and penalised the country which had rejected illegal migration from the beginning, protecting its own and Europe’s external borders.
This ruling “could never have been passed by a normal court,” he added.
Gulyás noted that the ruling went beyond the original claim of the complainant. The European Commission requested a condemnation of 7 million euros and a daily fine of 6 million euros until compliance, whereas the court ordered Hungary to pay a lump sum of 200 million euros and a daily fine of 1 million euros, that is seventy times the fine originally requested.
The ruling goes completely against everything we think about European law, the Hungarian constitution, the protection of external borders and effective action against migration, Gulyás said.
Government spokeswoman Eszter Vitalyos said that over the past two weeks, 310 billion forints (EUR 780m) worth of investments, supported with government funds, were opened in Hungary.
Out of 84 large projects, 125 billion forints were spent on public road infrastructure development, including 116 billion forints on a bridge spanning the Danube between Kalocsa and Paks and 2.5 billion forints for an M1 motorway exit at Paty.
Regarding health care, she highlighted Pecs University’s new emergency medical centre for children which received 2.7 billion forints in government support.
A total of 14 billion forints worth of investments were carried out in culture and public education, including 12 billion forints for the revamp of a Tisza castle in Geszt.
She added that a tourism development project has been completed in the Szolnok castle and a 700 metre long bridge dubbed the bridge of national cohesion was opened in Satoraljaujhely.
Company development investments included a 115 billion forint grant to a capacity expansion at an electric parts plant in Szolnok, in central Hungary, a 80 billion forint expansion of energy drink maker Hell’s plant in Szikszó, Vitalyos said. Other grants supported family-friendly and education investments at a pilgrimage site in Matraverebely, in northern Hungary, in Miskolc, Karcag and other localities.
A home renovation programme is also in the works, with the tender opening for the public in July, she said.
Fielding a question on the recount of the votes cast on the Budapest mayor candidates on Sunday, Gulyás said it was in everyone’s interest with such a close race that the result should be legitimate and beyond doubt. He said he expected the recount to clearly decide who won the election.
Gulyás said there were many ways of looking at the election results. Compared to the previous election, the governing parties won less in percentage terms but that came after two challenging years of war, an energy crisis and economic difficulties. After two years like this, “we achieved the best result in Europe and received more votes than ever in a European parliamentary election”, indeed, more than the parties that finished in second, third and fourth places combined, he added.
On the opposition Momentum party’s election result, he said it was good news that a party that “proudly and openly betrayed its country” did not clear the 5 percent parliamentary threshold. On the president of DK, he said Fidesz had been working since 2004 to ensure that Ferenc Gyurcsany plays a decreasing role on the left and his position has finally weakened.
Assessing the result of the European parliamentary election, Gulyás said that on the whole, he could see a shift to the right, but warned that the sovereigntist forces had not yet gained a majority. He said it would be desirable if the sovereigntists could form a party group within the European Parliament, but added that was still questionable.
He said it would become clear in a few weeks which party group Fidesz could join in the European Parliament.
Among the European Conservatives and Reformers, the majority would welcome Fidesz, he said, noting that they had wanted Fidesz to join already after it left the European People’s Party. “It was our decision to try to create a larger right-wing alliance and this still remains our goal but it may not be successful,” he said.
On the election result of the party of French president Emmanuel Macron, Gulyás said that those with the most pro-war position suffered the biggest defeat. It seems the French public could not identify with the plan of sending French soldiers to Ukraine, he said.
Gulyás said the spotlight would come off Hungary if “we joined the supporters of war, opened our borders to migration and were willing to hold gender briefings in kindergartens,” but the government is not willing to do these.
Fielding a question on possible cooperation between Fidesz and Germany’s AfD, he said such a possibility had not even been suggested.
On the European People’s Party, he cited the EPP’s “pro-war position” as the main criticism. It seems the EPP evaluates the election result as a success, partly rightfully so, he said, adding that the EPP was looking for cooperation with the left and the liberals.
Gulyás said it was inconceivable that the Tisza Party could sit in the same party group, the EPP, with KDNP, the junior member of the governing Fidesz-KDNP alliance, in the European Parliament. He said this could happen in two ways: either Tisza is not accepted by the EPP or KDNP leaves the group.
He emphasised that Fidesz had no plans to cooperate with Tisza in the Budapest City Council.
On the composition of the City Council and the ability to obtain the majority necessary for passing the budget, for example, he said there were many parties that won enough votes to send deputies into the City Council and some of these had loose party affiliations, so it could be expected that there could still be many changes in the assembly and it would not be impossible at all to obtain a majority for a budget.
On Fidesz-KDNP’s candidate for Budapest mayor, he said Alexandra Szentkiralyi wished to continue to work on the affairs of Budapest in future so she was expected to become the leader of Fidesz’s group in the City Council. On Szentkiralyi’s withdrawal from the race, he said she had withdrawn voluntarily and unilaterally and Dávid Vitézy could rightly say that he had not asked for this and did not owe the governing parties anything.
Gulyás assessed Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony’s performance in the past five years as a complete failure, he said Vitézy could only do better in comparison.
He said they did not plan to limit the powers of the mayors who were defeated in the municipal elections before their successors take office in October, and this would not be constitutional anyway.
Concerning Ilaria Salis’s winning a mandate in the EP, Gulyás said the election of the antifa activist, a “common law criminal” being prosecuted for violent acts in Budapest “does not present a too positive image of Italian democracy and part of their voters”. He said if the EP suspended the immunity of its new member, the proceedings could be continued against her; should the EP fail to do so, the proceedings will be interrupted.
Asked about Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s earlier remarks calling for “occupying Brussels” in the light of the EP election’s results, Gulyás said “we have set foot; we have not occupied it yet, but we are in” adding that “perhaps at least another EP election will be needed” to complete “the great military manoeuvre”.
Concerning Hungary’s upcoming EU presidency, Gulyás said it would give increased focus to the community’s competitiveness, agricultural and cohesion policies as well as to demographic challenges.
Referring to a visit by the NATO chief to Budapest on Wednesday, Gulyás said Jens Stoltenberg’s talks with the prime minister had yielded “maximum results” as “Hungary could maintain its “pro-peace position”. He said NATO was mulling training troops for the war and providing equipment to them, but “the military mission would probably not end there and those participating in it will be obliged to contribute to common defence under (NATO’s) Article 5, which could involve armed operations outside the country,” Gulyás said.
Without a fast peace agreement, NATO will under its Ukrainian mission “enter Ukraine’s western parts possibly as a peace keeper”, Gulyás said but insisted that “Hungary will not participate”. He also said, however, that if Russia should attack another NATO country on its own territory “and the conflict is not linked to NATO’s Ukraine mission, Hungary will participate in that.”
“Hungary’s NATO membership is a good thing and the government does not want to quit; Hungary … is meeting its NATO commitments,” Gulyás said, but added, however, that “NATO has overstepped the boundaries a defence alliance should not cross”.
Gulyás excluded the possibility of sending Lynx armoured vehicles, manufactured also in Hungary, to Ukraine “in the foreseeable future”.
He said “there is no sign” of other NATO members staying away from the Ukraine mission, adding that Stoltenberg’s Wednesday agreement would be binding for the next NATO chief, too. He also said Wednesday’s talks had not touched upon Stoltenberg’s successor. “If the other members insist on Dutch PM Mark Rutte, he will have to do something to get Hungary’s support,” Gulyás added.
Asked if Hungary would refrain from vetoing the EU’s decisions concerning Ukraine after its agreement with NATO, Gulyás said “the two things are not connected”.
Gulyás was also asked when Hungarian troops would be sent to Chad. He said there wasn’t any “exact timetable” prepared. He said talks were underway “aimed at having a (Hungarian) military mission in Chad”.
Asked about Hungary’s recent repurchasing majority ownership in Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport, Gulyás said the national economy ministry and the owners would provide information about the project in early July. He said the objective was to build a new terminal with the aim to increase the number of foreign tourists to over 20 million, adding that “with a well-developed infrastructure including a fast train service between the city and the airport, the goal of even 30 million visitors can be achieved”. Gulyás said that at times of war, posing a national security risk “it is reassuring” to have the a majority ownership in the airport.
Asked whether further plans still involved selling 29 percent of the airport to investors from Qatar, Gulyás said “the ownership structure is currently not like that.”
“The state part of the transaction will be closer to the ranges of 1,000 billion forints,” he added.
Speaking about restoring the balance of the central budget, Gulyás said the word austerity “is not included in the government’s vocabulary”.
Asked to comment on the recent weakening of the forint, he noted “a hectic volatility of the euro-forint exchange rate”, adding that “a return to economic growth will in the long term ensure that such hectic changes should not occur at all or occur only a lot less frequently”.
Commenting on the recent resignation of the culture and innovation minister, Gulyás said it was not related to the elections. He said the prime minister had not planned any further reshuffle in the cabinet.
Regarding the European import duties imposed on Chinese electric vehicles and opposed by Hungary, Gulyás said that “Europe will not win but loose on the whole issue, if China introduces similar duties”.
Asked about the planned national vaccine production plant in Debrecen, he said it was in the ownership of Debrecen University and “will be completed soon” in the city in eastern Hungary.
Speaking about the upcoming peace conference on Ukraine to be held by Switzerland, Gulyás said Hungary would be represented by the foreign minister.
Asked about the possibility of a meeting between the Ukrainian president and the Hungarian prime minister, he said “it will not be on the agenda as long as no results can be expected from it”.
Hungary and the Vatican are on an equal footing as regards the issue of war and peace, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said after meeting the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States in Vatican City on Friday, noting that both countries supported making peace in Ukraine as soon as possible.
According to a statement from the foreign ministry, Szijjártó‘s talks with Archbishop Richard Gallagher focused primarily on the war in Ukraine.
“We were in agreement that making peace these days requires enormous courage … as those who want peace and work for it along with pro-peace politicians are under enormous pressure,” the ministry quoted Szijjártó as saying. Those who are exerting pressure “have a legal, psychical and a political tool-kit”, he said.
“The legal tool is being used against Donald Trump on the other side of the Atlantic. The psychical one was unfortunately manifested in the attempt on the life of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico,” Szijjártó said. “The political one is sought to be applied against us in the form of proposals aimed at revoking our voting rights in the EU just to prevent that we could continue to block the spread of the war.”
He said that the war in Ukraine would “only have losers, no winners” and it was hard to predict “how many” because “a threat of escalation is growing by the day”.
The minister criticised a recent decision allowing the Ukrainian army to attack targets in Russia with weapons supplied by the United States and Germany and also criticised a statement on sending French training officers to Ukraine, arguing that those could increase the threat of a world war.
“The Vatican’s foreign minister and I agreed that we need to mobilise the resources of diplomacy,” Szijjártó said, highlighting the need for starting and maintaining dialogue on peace.
He said they spoke about the upcoming peace conference on Ukraine in Switzerland which will be attended by both Hungary and the Vatican. “But we have a kind of sense of absence, regretting that not all warring sides will be present,” he added.
Meanwhile, Szijjártó underscored the importance of strengthening bilateral relations, saying that “we need the closest possible allies who are ready to take action in the interest of peace.”
On another topic, Szijjártó pointed out the Hungarian government’s aim to continue to develop relations with the historical churches also to the benefit of the Hungarian people.
“The fact that the number of students studying in church-run schools has gone up to 184,000 from 74,000 since we took power in 2010 reflects a rather positive opinion by Hungarian families and parents on our church and education policy,” he said.
Szijjártó said that they also discussed the issue of persecuted Christians, noting the government’s continued consultations with the Vatican on the matter. He also noted the launch of 367 programmes under a government scheme that was aimed at improving the situation of persecuted Christians in 64 countries.
All wars start as a result of human decisions, the defence minister said at the inauguration of the Armed Forces’ new multi-mission air defence radars in Veszprém, in western Hungary, on Friday.
The minister said more and more western European leaders were making remarks about the steps that needed to be taken to continue the war in Ukraine and the amount of ammunition and weapons that needed to be sent. There were also more and more remarks about the possibility of sending soldiers, he added.
He said that at first, there had only been talk of sending helmets to Ukraine, which was followed by artillery systems, ammunition, combat vehicles and fighter jets. Now, he added, they were talking about which NATO or European Union member state would send troops on training missions to Ukraine’s territory.
The minister said Hungary and Europe’s interest lay in putting a stop to this process, and this required strength, both in elections and on the part of the military. This was why, he added, the government had accelerated its military upgrades.
Szalay-Bobrovniczky said the Hungarian Armed Forces and its air defence capabilities would be given a boost “which was tried and tested” in combat conditions in Israel.
These multifunctional 3D radar systems, together with Norway’s NASAMS air defence systems and the four additional Gripen fighter jets purchased recently by Hungary and other equipment, “will make up the shield that guarantees the security of the Hungarian people”, the minister said.
Pietro Mazzei, CEO of Rheinmetall Canada, praised the partnership between the defence industry and the Hungarian government.
He said Rheinmetall had been able to establish an assembly, integration and testing base in Hungary that had resulted in the equipment that has been delivered.
Mazzei thanked the Armed Forces for not only devoting time to learning the technology, but also integrating it into their everyday operations.
According to press material distributed at the event, the ELM-2084 multifunctional radar is capable of supporting airspace monitoring and missile interception or artillery air defence operations.
The ongoing (anti-)war campaign of the Fidesz government is a serious threat to children and a clear violation of their rights, child advocate experts say. Unlawful, harmful, dangerous, and incomprehensible, a sociologist who works with children summed up the “Stop War” campaign.
In recent weeks, it has become impossible not to come across posters on the street that read “Stop War” in enormous letters. Similarly, advertisements with sinister background music, proclaiming that Hungarian opposition politicians would plunge the country into war constantly interrupt YouTube videos.
The Hungarian press reported extensively on a case in Piliscsaba, where the mayor had to relocate an anti-war poster from in front of a school after several complaints from parents. At the recent Peace March, children performing on stage before Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech had to shout that they did not want war.
“Stop War.” Only Fidesz on June 9! Photo: PrtSc from EuroNews via YouTube
Népszava interviewed child rights experts about the government’s war campaign who pointed out that posters and campaign videos threatening war could be seriously harmful to the psychological development of children.
In name, the ads are part of a pro-peace campaign. In reality, they are barely-masked fearmongering ahead of the upcoming elections. To reflect this dichotomy, this article uses the terms “anti-war campaign” and “war campaign” interchangeably.
Previous events: both Péter Magyar and the government have spoken out on the anti-war campaign
Péter Magyar, vice-chairman of the Tisza Party recently announced that he would sue Viktor Orbán over the fearmongering war campaign, and also file a complaint with the National Media and Infocommunications Authority about war scare ads on YouTube. Moreover, his party has launched a petition entitled “War is not a game” to protect children’s rights, as they claim that:
“the ruling party, in its election campaign, is using TV, internet, and billboards to bombard people with content harmful to children’s psychological development in order to maintain its power.”
As reported by DNH, Fidesz communications director Tamás Menczer responded to Magyar’s statements by saying that George Soros had ordered Magyar to have the posters removed. Magyar, according to the director, is “a genuine, black belt, pro-war, left-wing politician, financed by and taking orders from George Soros.”
Menczer added that “the truth is that children are not harmed by the posters but by the war.” Therefore, the “Stop War” posters will not disappear, in fact, the campaign will continue with even more force.
The war campaign poses a serious threat to children’s wellbeing
Mária Herczog, a sociologist and child advocate expert, said the government’s messaging “violates children’s rights, is harmful, dangerous and incomprehensible.”
Herczog stressed that the Fidesz anti-war campaign could cause anxiety in adults and children alike. If parents themselves believe in the danger of an all-out war, they may also instil in their children a sense of fear of the future.
“Stop War” and “Peace” billboards. Photo: PrtSc from EuroNews via YouTube
Children, even if they don’t fully understand what is going on in politics, understand the underlying sentiment that “everyone is constantly in danger. There are no opponents but enemies facing each other, there is no common ground, no common cause, no room for meaningful agreements, and no compromises. Instead, we must fight.”
This is a deeply concerning message, Herczog said, which could have long-term implications for the psyches of the younger generations. She said that for experts working with children, it is a key goal to teach youngsters how to manage conflict peacefully, how to cooperate with each other, and negotiate non-violently. In such a political climate, this task is about impossible.
Moreover, the fact that such “Stop War” ads can pop up during videos that have nothing to do with politics, such as content for children, is “extremely harmful and seriously endangers children, violating their rights.”
Mrs Katona Pehr Erika, representing the Civil Coalition for Children’s Rights, emphasised that children should not become tools of party politics. A proper political and constitutional culture cannot allow parties to use those most vulnerable in society to reach their goals.
The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and two deputies issued a joint statement at the time of the 2019 European Parliament elections regarding this standard, stating that “children are individuals with fundamental human rights, views, and feelings,” who should not be used to gain popularity during elections.
Moreover, Mrs Katona highlighted that it is strictly prohibited to manipulate children in election campaigns. She added that the protection of children from harmful messages should be a top priority for all parties during election season.
Scaremongering about war is in stark contrast with these ideals, the expert said, pointing out that the war campaign is “seriously harmful to children because it instils a visceral fear of possible bombings, of the possible death of their parents or family.”
Heated debates can be expected at Friday’s meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Brussels on Thursday. “We can expect war psychosis to peak and [participants] to support crazier ideas than ever,” he said.
Szijjártó said he did not expect “a friendly atmosphere”, and he warned of “a very dangerous situation”, the ministry quoted him as saying.
“Apparently, our European colleagues have plunged themselves with great vigour into the deepening pits of war psychosis on Monday, and I believe that the presence of the Americans and the British will even stimulate this hysterical state,” he said.
“And I expect the meeting of NATO foreign ministers to be surrounded by an even greater pro-war atmosphere than before…” he said.
Regarding a proposal to allow Ukrainian forces to use Western weapons to fire into Russian territory, he said the Russians far from lacked equipment and were bound to retaliate, leading to “many, many more casualties”.
Arms deliveries to Ukraine would increase the number of weapons on both sides of the front, causing more deaths.
“Even the NATO decision to cross the red line that we drew ourselves two years ago in February is very dangerous. NATO crossed this red line by increasing its own role in coordinating weapons deliveries and the training of Ukrainian soldiers,” he said.
He noted that preparations for NATO’s Ukraine mission had been progressing at full tilt in recent weeks, which was “extremely dangerous” and contrary to the alliance’s original mission, as the organisation was not under attack.
“There is no need to use war rhetoric or create war tension,” the minister said. “This is a defence alliance, not one designed to attack.”
He said the government had made it clear in recent weeks that “no Hungarian soldiers can take part in such operations, no Hungarian territories can be used for such operations and no Hungarian taxpayers funds can be used either.” Yet Hungary was being “put under pressure to join this”, he added.
“Naturally, I will continue to resist tomorrow, and make it clear that there is no way Hungary can be forced to join this operation. And it is still unclear how the mission can go ahead without Hungarian taxpayers’ money being used. So heated debates can be expected tomorrow,” Szijjarto said.
Voters will have a chance in the June 9 European parliamentary elections to tell the European politicians “talking crazy” that they have had enough, and to choose peace, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said in Amman on Wednesday.
Péter Szijjártó told a joint press conference with Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi that both Hungary and Jordan faced grave security challenges in their respective regions, while neither were to blame for the regional tensions surrounding them.
“Neither of us are in any way responsible for the eruption of these conflicts, yet we are still among those paying the price for them,” Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement.
“Hungarians are rightfully fed up with this,” he said. “The Hungarian people want peace, and the entire country, the entire nation is baffled by the dangerous and crazy things certain European politicians say… Certain European politicians want to send troops to Ukraine, while others are fantasising about the deployment of nuclear weapons.”
“Either one of those will result in a world war, and those of us in the direct vicinity of the conflicts will be the ones paying the price of that, too,” he said.
Szijjártó said voters would have a chance to vote for peace in the June 9 EP elections, “and send a message to the European politicians talking crazy that they’ve had enough”.
He said stable and reliable partnerships based on mutual respect like the one between Hungary and Jordan were all the more important in the current situation.
The foreign minister expressed Hungary’s appreciation for Jordan’s role in preserving the region’s stability and in the fight against terrorism and extremism.
He said the international community should be focused on preventing an escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the outbreak of an open inter-state war.
“Another reason why we consider Jordan’s stability and common-sense approach to be of key importance is because we believe it is such policies that offer hope that there can one day be peace in the Middle East again,” Szijjártó said.
Szijjártó said everything had to be done to protect civilians, calling the hampering of humanitarian efforts “unacceptable”. He also called for the immediate release of the hostages.
He praised Jordan’s role in the care provided to refugees, warning that without it, the millions who have fled their homes would set off for Europe.
“Therefore we believe Jordan deserves all the support possible from Europe,” he said, adding that during its upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Hungarian government intended to convene a meeting of the Jordan-EU Association Council to debate the matter of further assistance.
Hungary has supported Jordan in its caring for refugees with 4 million US dollars over the last five years, Szijjártó said, adding that the Hungary Helps humanitarian programme will open a representative office in Amman.
He said Hungary and Jordan had signed multiple agreements during his visit, including one under which Hungary will offer scholarships to 400 Jordanian university students each year.
The sides are also launching a joint training programme for young diplomats, strengthening cooperation in the field of environmental protection and starting a youth cooperation programme.
Some 59 percent of European Union citizens said they would be willing to fight for their country at home, 27 percent said they would also be willing to fight beyond the borders, but 69 percent said they were against the participation of their soldiers in Ukraine, pollster Századvég said on Wednesday citing a survey dubbed Europe Project.
A total of 27 percent of European citizens said they would not fight for their country even within home borders and 54 percent said they were against fighting for their country abroad.
The highest willingness to protect the country at home was registered among Lithuanians (74 percent) and among Estonians and Hungarians (70 percent each), the Századvégstatement said.
The percentage of people willing to fight for their country beyond home borders was under 50 percent in all the countries surveyed, and only in Lithuania the ratio of supporters (46 percent) was higher than the percentage of those against (28 percent).
Only 23 percent of Germans said they would be willing to fight for their country beyond home borders, and 60 percent was against.
The highest rejection of fighting for their country beyond the home borders was registered among Hungarians (75 percent) and among Austrians and Belgians (66 percent).
Only 25 percent of the Europeans surveyed by Századvég said they were not against sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
The ratio of those who support sending soldiers to Ukraine was not higher then the proportion of those that oppose this in any EU state, with Hungarians (91 percent) and Bulgarians (86 percent) being most against supporting Kyiv by sending soldiers.
Two new Airbus H225M helicopters have been delivered to the Hungarian armed forces from Airbus Helicopters in France, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the defence minister said on Monday.
The craft arrived at MH József Kiss 86th Helicopter Brigade airbase in Szolnok on Monday afternoon, a ministry statement said.
The parachute and airborne capabilities of the armed forces will be further enhanced thanks to the craft’s high-tech equipment, the minister said.
There are now eight Airbus H225M helicopters in Hungary, half the country’s entire H225M fleet.
The first helicopters were delivered in July 2023, and related equipment has been arriving continuously ever since.
Szalay-Bobrovniczky noted the recent purchase of four new Gripen fighter jets and a new SAAB centre of excellence using augmented reality technology. Also, pilots were given a big wage increase at the start of the year, he noted.
The best chance of ending the war in Ukraine is if the European Parliament take a turn rightwards and if Donald Trump is re-elected as US president, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said at a campaign event near Budapest on Monday.
Szijjártó talks about war, EP and Trump
Chances of ending the war in short order appeared slim for now, partly because the majority of European political leaders were in a state of “war psychosis”, he said.
No one had attacked the European Union, any European country or NATO, he said, warning that Western responses may end up risking escalation and a third world war.
It was “appalling”, he added, that some European leaders had even brought up the use of nuclear weapons.
No solution on the battlefield existed, the minister said, adding that a settlement could only be reached through diplomacy.
“If Donald Trump wins and there is a right-wing turn in the European Parliament elections on June 9, nothing right now offers a better chance of ending the war,” he said.
Photo: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter
Meanwhile, he said Hungary’s media were “the freest in Europe” as well as the most diverse.
Addressing Hungary’s child protection law, he said that in Brussels it was “a capital crime” for anyone to state that a family consists of “a father, mother and children, and that the father is a man and the mother is a woman”. He added that Hungary was not receiving EU funds because of its stance on the matter.
Szijjarto said Brussels was seriously breaking the law. “Someone must take responsibility for the fact that tens of billions of euros have not arrived for the development of Hungary,” he said.
Even so, Hungary had proven its economic viability without EU funds, he said.
Regarding relations with China, the minister said European countries were in fierce competition with each other for investments from China, especially as regards the electric car industry, and Chinese batteries were needed for German electric cars. “This is what the transition of the European green car industry looks like right now,” he said.
